Power restored at Atlanta airport after 1,000 flights grounded

Updated 10:19 pm, Sunday, December 17, 2017

Long lines form at Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson airport after a power failure. Hundreds of flights were canceled on the eve of the busy holiday rush.

Long lines form at Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson airport after a power failure. Hundreds of flights were canceled on the eve of the busy holiday rush.

Photo: Steve Schaefer, Associated Press

Power restored at Atlanta airport after 1,000 flights grounded

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ATLANTA — Minutes after its midnight deadline to get the electricity back on at the world’s busiest airport, Georgia Power announced early Monday that power had been fully restored to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, where more than 1,000 flights were grounded just days before the start of the Christmas travel rush.

A sudden power failure caused by a fire in an underground electrical facility brought the airport to a standstill.

Georgia Power said on its Twitter page that “Power has been restored on all concourses. 5,000+ meals are being delivered to passengers. Trains will be operational soon.”

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Passengers at the airport were left in the dark when the lights went out at around 1 p.m. The outage halted all outgoing flights, and arriving planes were held on the ground at their point of departure. International flights were being diverted, officials said.

Mayor Kasim Reed tweeted Sunday night that all passengers had been safely deplaned.

The city of Atlanta said on its Twitter page that it would provide shuttle service to the Georgia Convention Center for travelers in need of a place to stay and that Chick-fil-A meals would be provided.

Delta passenger Emilia Duca, 32, was on her way to Wisconsin from Bogota, Colombia, when she got stuck in Atlanta. She said police made passengers who were in the baggage-claim area move to a higher floor. She said restaurants and shops were closed. Vending machines weren’t working.

“A lot of people are arriving, and no one is going out. No one is saying anything official. We are stuck here,” she said. “It’s a nightmare.”

Adding to the nightmare are what some passengers said was a lack of information from airport officials and help from first responders to get the disabled and the elderly through the airport without the use of escalators and elevators.

About 13 flights out of San Francisco International Airport were affected Sunday, with airline carriers United, Southwest and Delta forced to cancel Atlanta flights because of the ground stop issued at Hartsfield.